Treatment that facilitates observation of an analyte collected from an organism such as a human body or an animal, as one example, fabricating a microscope specimen from a tissue fragment as an analyte collected from an organism such as a human body or an animal, is carried out as disclosed in Patent Document 1 listed below using a tissue fragment treatment apparatus 10 depicted in FIG. 6. In the tissue fragment treatment apparatus 10, a variety of treatments such as fixing, dewatering, degreasing/substitution, and paraffin embedding are carried out on a tissue fragment held in a treatment tank 12. During such treatments, a variety of liquid chemicals such as formalin, alcohol, xylene, and paraffin are successively supplied into the treatment tank 12 in which the tissue fragment is held.
Out of such liquid chemicals, formalin, alcohol, and xylene are normally stored separately in rectangular liquid chemical tanks that are made of resin and are housed inside a tank housing unit 14 of the tissue fragment treatment apparatus 10. The tank housing unit 14 is equipped with a transparent door 14a. On the other hand, since paraffin is solid at room temperature, it is customary to house a paraffin container for storing paraffin inside a paraffin housing unit 16 that is formed separately to the tank housing unit 14 and is kept at a predetermined temperature. Predetermined liquid chemicals are successively supplied into the treatment tank 12 from the liquid chemical tanks that store the various chemicals and from the paraffin container according to signals from a control unit 18.
Settings of the control unit 18 can be made via a ten key pad 20 provided on a panel, and information such as the result of a setting operation can be monitored via a monitor unit 22.
Patent Document 1
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-346767
In the tissue fragment treatment apparatus 10 depicted in FIG. 6, the rectangular liquid chemical tanks that store the various liquid chemicals such as formalin, alcohol, and xylene are housed inside the tank housing unit 14 as depicted in FIG. 7. A plurality of liquid chemical tanks 24 are housed on three levels inside the tank housing unit 14. Connection sockets 30a for connecting to connection openings of the liquid chemical tanks 24 are attached to a partition plate 42 of the tank housing unit 14 and the connection sockets 30a are connected by delivery pipes 28 to the treatment tank 12. Control valves (not shown) are provided on the delivery pipes 28 that connect the individual liquid chemical tanks 24 and the treatment tank 12. The control valves are opened and closed according to signals from the control unit 18 (see FIG. 6) to supply the liquid chemicals inside the liquid chemical tanks 24 to the treatment tank 12. The connection openings of the liquid chemical tanks 24 that are held on the same level are covered by a waste gas header 30 so as to collect gasified chemicals that leak from the connection openings of the liquid chemical tanks 24. Out of the waste gas headers 30 provided on the different levels, the waste gas header 30 on the top level is connected by a connection pipe 32 to the waste gas header 30 on the middle level, and the waste gas header 30 on the middle level is connected by a connection pipe 32 to the waste gas header 30 on the bottom level. The waste gas header 30 on the bottom level is connected by a waste gas pipe 34 to a waste gas processing unit 36 in which an adsorbent such as activated charcoal is held, so that gasified chemicals that have not condensed in the waste gas headers 30 will be absorbed by the waste gas processing unit 36. On the other hand, condensed liquid 40 that has condensed in the waste gas headers 30 is collected in the bottom waste gas header 30 and is stored in a waste liquid tank 38. However, the liquid chemicals stored separately in the liquid chemical tanks 24 housed inside the tank housing unit 14 of the tissue fragment treatment apparatus 10 will need to be replaced with new chemicals or refilled depending on factors such as the remaining amount of chemical or changes in concentration that occur during the processes of the tissue fragment treatment. To do so, it is necessary to disconnect the connection opening of a liquid chemical tank 24 from the waste gas header 30 and remove the liquid chemical tank 24 from the tank housing unit 14. In addition, it is also necessary to insert the liquid chemical tank 24 with new liquid chemical inside the tank housing unit 14 and to reconnect the connection opening of the liquid chemical tank 24 and the waste gas header 30. The act of disconnecting and reconnecting the connection openings of the liquid chemical tanks 24 and the waste gas headers 30 should be easy to carry out, and as depicted in FIG. 8, Patent Document 1 mentioned above proposes connecting the connection plugs 24a of the liquid chemical tanks 24 and the connection sockets 30a provided on the waste gas headers 30 via a one-touch operation.